# Two forest fires continued to spread toward residential areas in a northern Japanese town prompting authorities to expand evacuation orders to more than three-thousand people. The blaze broke out on Wednesday afternoon in a mountainous area in Iwate Prefecture, followed by another fire about two hours later near the town Otsuchi. Firefighters have been battling the flames from both the ground and the air, but it remains uncontained. The wildfires have scorched more than one-thousand-176 hectares and forced evacuation orders covering one-thousand-541 households and three-thousand-233 people.
Northern Japan wildfires prompt mass evacuations as flames spread